There may be a need of mounting in products of flexible material such as inflatable objects, or hoses of coated fabric or rubber material, tubular elements of different kinds for example bushings, connectors, or valves, in a flexible wall which is accessible from one side only.
EP-B1-0868291 discloses a method and device for mounting a tubular element in a flexible wall using a loading tube and a tool inserted therein supporting the tubular element during delivery through the loading tube. Although the method and device are well proven for use by professionally trained personal, the method and device may be improved for less trained operators. There is a need for improving the insertion of the tubular device into a loading tube. Especially the reliability and convenience of bending retainers into an axially orientation, from initially projecting transversely, at each end of the tubular device when pushing the device into a loading tube may be improved. This step is hitherto performed manually by an operator of the loading tube, wherein this step, likewise all manually performed operations, underlies fluctuations in reliability of the step performed. Potential sources of errors are for instance the orientation of the retainers when loaded into the loading tube, the rotational orientation of the tubular device in the loading tube and thus in the flexible wall when mounted into the wall, or contamination of the tubular device with undesired contaminants. There is also a need for such a loading device and method being operable by a more simpler manipulation of a smart inserting device, for instance a one-hand operation.
Hence, an improved mounting device would be
advantageous. The purpose of the invention is to facilitate such mounting of a tubular device and to improve the ease-of-use of a loading device used for said mounting, as well as improving the security and reliability of the mounting. The invention seeks also to solve the problem of manufacturing such an improved loading device.